Wide Awake (1998)

This is so unlike Shyamalan in its plot and feel if you look on the surface -- but one of Shyamalan's main themes has always been the issue of faith, of God, of how that can connect to our life down here. He just took an entire movie to explore it here, instead of having it as a sideplot to the main idea of aliens invading earth.

Joseph Cross is superb as the main child. He's possibly as brilliant as Haley Joel Osment was in Sixth Sense, but in a very different genre. He is wrestling with very serious, adult issues, and his growing discouragement is heartbreaking to watch.

Although this isn't a brilliant film, it's a solidly moving portrayal of a young boy's search for God in a world that is too busy to answer his questions. 3.5 stars.

(By the way, what is this "Rosie O'Donnell Is Hilarious!" endorsement up at the top of the box cover? Rosie O'Donnell was in it very briefly and was not terribly hilarious either time. Really, the story's about the boy, not about her at all. Terrible idea trying to market it as an uproarious family comedy.)

The American President (1995)

This movie suffers from a bizarre Annette Bening performance, a terrible script, one-dimensional characters, and a thoroughly boring plot. So what makes it 2 1/2 stars rather than something lower? Michael Douglas' performance. He takes the awkward, stilted lines he was given and somehow fleshes them out to create a character that I'm actually interested in hearing more about. Not worth watching as a whole (Dave is much better as a presidential romance movie) but his performance makes it not terrible. 2.5 stars.

27 Dresses (2008)

Plot: After serving as a bridesmaid 27 times, a young woman wrestles with the idea of standing by her sister's side as her sibling marries the man she's secretly in love with.

A romantic comedy really only requires two things to make it work: a guy and a girl that you want to end up together. This has that. Katherine Heigl is a charming bridesmaid doormat who has never said no to anyone in her life, while James Marsden (who is rising in fame, hoorah, hoorah) is a charming cynic, and it's easy to root for the two of them to finally realize they're meant to be with each other. The movie tries to be a bit deeper than it's really able to, but plays well with concepts, hopes, and dreams that are easy to relate to and cheer on. Fairly well-done. 3.5 stars.

Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)

John Hughes has a tendency to make pleasant, inoffensive comedies with characters you remember with fondness at the end. This is one of those. Although it does have its truly funny moments, for the most part it's merely "pleasant." There's nothing here that will really stand out in my mind a few days after seeing it. Martin and Candy do well in their roles but still can't manage to pull it above "pleasant."

John Candy's character was actually the most interesting of all. He had a surprising depth to him that, once you realized it, showed through even in the obnoxious moments. Not sure whether it was good scriptwriting or good acting or a little bit of both. 3 stars.

The Happening (2008)

Potential spoilers ahead.

This deserves nowhere NEAR the nasty reputation it got. Shyamalan's made a return to one of the things he does well - creating a creepy atmosphere, even without a very good story. Whether you buy the ending or not, the sight of people calmly and emotionlessly killing themselves is fairly chilling, and Shyamalan handles those scenes well. Although he plays with the gore more than he usually does in his films, he's still more restrained than many other modern horror filmmakers, leaving more to the imagination.

I loved the scene near the end where the two of them decide to leave their safe places to get to each other. There's a great deal of desperate romance in that scene - they know they're going to die. However, the moment directly after that, the voiceover explaining why they didn't die, was one of the sloppiest explanations EVER in the history of movies.

I don't know what people were expecting to see when they watched this, but I suspect it was, once again, The Sixth Sense. Which... it wasn't. On purpose. (Really, people. He's not trying to remake that movie. That's why his other movies aren't good remakes of it.) There *was* no big surprise. As in Signs, Shyamalan focuses on the characters and their reactions to a world gone mad more than just attempting to scare the audience. It may not succeed completely, but it's actually a really good formula for a horror movie. If we see things from the characters' perspectives, if we can get inside their skin and see what disturbs them about all this, then we'll be frightened when they're frightened. Looking at it from an objective box full of stereotypes and cliched endings, it's not that frightening a movie. But the emphasis on "these are real people in the real world" allows the movie to become much better than anyone's giving him credit for.

Effective -- flawed, but effective. 3.5 stars.

Iron Man (2008)

I am becoming more and more impressed with Robert Downey Jr.'s acting abilities. Here he plays a carefree, spontaneous genius... all without cracking a smile. He adds depth to a character that would have been completely stereotyped in the hands of any other actor. Lovely casting there.

The movie itself is thoroughly enjoyable, a fresh new superhero tale with slick action sequences. Terrence Howard's character sums up aspects of this neatly: "That is the coolest thing I've ever seen." The mechanical outfit, the battles, the schemes to escape from the villain... they all have a certain aura of cool. One of the most satisfying in the genre. 4 stars.

Magnolia (1999)

What a fascinating cast of characters. Each and every character has a back story we care about -- even the completely understated ones. (I, for one, wanted to know more about Philip Seymour Hoffman's character, a superbly, subtly acted personality.) Does the ending work, though? I'm not sure it does. It feels like it *should* mean something, but it... doesn't quite.

It's hard to deny the powerful stories told throughout the first two and a half hours, however. There's an incredibly touching moment where all the characters are singing along with a song playing on the radio. (It's much less trite than that makes it sound.) As we see each character lost in their own world, lost in their own problems and miseries, quietly singing this song, there's something very sad and poignant about that. That one scene alone would make this movie worth watching.

A great film, only an okay ending. It wasn't terrible - but it could have been so much more. 4 stars.